MANKATO — The Minnesota State men’s hockey team was idle last week, the only team in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association out of action on the sport’s opening weekend.

For a few of the Mavericks, having a weekend off while everyone else was playing games was enough to drive them stir crazy.

Not team captain Joel Hanson.

Asked what he was going to do with his final days off, he said, “Going to Grandpa’s.”

Trading in pucks for ducks for a couple of days, Hanson went hunting with family in the southwestern part of the state before jumping head first into his final season of college hockey.

Hanson didn’t seem too worried about the late start to the season, which begins tonight with the first of two WCHA games at Michigan Tech. Then again, he probably wouldn’t let it show.

Quiet and unassuming, the laid-back Hanson probably wasn’t pegged as a guy who’d eventually have the “C” stitched on his sweater when he arrived at Minnesota State as a freshman.

Of that class, Ryan Carter and Steve Wagner looked like they had the most captain material. But they both left college for the National Hockey League before they could get their stripes.

Hanson didn’t get the job by default, though. He earned it the old-fashioned way. With hard work and steady improvement, he’s gone from a role player to a first-line forward. A finance major set to graduate in May, Hanson also carries a 3.78 GPA.

“I think I’ll be a leader by example,” he said. “I’m not going to give any Vince Lombardi speeches.”

After scoring four goals in each of his first two seasons, the 6-foot-2, 205 pound winger slimmed down and broke out last season with 15 goals, including a team-leading nine on the power play. He finished the year with 28 points and is the Mavericks’ top returning scorer.

“He’s kind of a coach’s dream,” Minnesota State coach Troy Jutting said.

In addition to maintaining his offensive production, Hanson has been charged with leading a team that has just one other player remaining from the 2004-05 rookie class, defenseman R.J. Linder.

“Joel has to be a leader for us, no question,” Jutting said. “And he is. He was a leader in a lot of ways last year. We’re going to have to get production from him.”

At 24, Hanson is the oldest player on Minnesota State’s roster. After winning the 2002 state championship with Elk River in high school, he spent three seasons of junior hockey with Waterloo (Iowa) of the United States Hockey League.

“He’s underrated,” Mavericks junior Mick Berge said. “But I played against him in junior hockey. I know what he can do. I think he’s going to be better this year. His shot looks even harder than it was last year.”

During his second season in Waterloo, he was voted the Black Hawks’ unsung hero.

The next year, he was the team’s MVP and scored the game-winning goal to give Waterloo the USHL playoff championship.

Last season, Minnesota State gave Hanson another unsung hero award, but no one’s predicting history to repeat itself right now.

When asked about the low expectations placed upon the Mavericks in the preseason — the WCHA coaches picked MSU to finish ninth in the 10-team league — Hanson was his usual nonchalant self and simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Being an underdog isn’t that bad sometimes,” he said.